Island
by Annjirika
Summary: It was an ordinary plane crash, on an ordinary island, with ordinary people. But there's something weird about the Island. Survivors are going missing, and what are these strange shadows... Sokairi LeonxYuffiexRiku
1. Echoes Of Emptiness

_A/N: I don't know my expectations with this fic. I'm not sure if I'm aiming for weird, creepy, scary, or just…normal. This will be a bit confusing now, but it will make sense later. It's only the prologue after all, which also explains the length. _

_Chapter one should come soon enough; I am more than determined to finish this one. But you know me…_

_-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-_

"Ladies and gentlemen, we are experiencing turbulence…" 

These walls. I hate them. They're always so damp. And cold. And hard. I can't break them, I can't dent them, I can't hear through them and certainly no one can hear me. I scream all the time. I'm screaming right now but there's nothing. It echoes around my stone prison walls, surrounding me with the sounds of my own torture. _What are they doing to me?_

"Please remain in your seat and fasten your seatbelts until…" 

My theory is…they're watching me. They hear me scream, they hear me cry, they hear the pain of the transformations. They _feel_ my heart as they tear it into tiny pieces. He watches me. He studies me like I am an animal in a zoo. _I am becoming a monster._

"Remain calm. We will be through the storm…" 

Sometimes I think about the others. Are they alive? Are they in the same place I am? Did I make them all up? It…feels so long ago. The crash. Being there. The discovery. There are five of us…right? Are they all in my head? It had been so real and yet such a dream…_Am I really alone here?_

"This is an emergency!" 

I let my head fall between my knees, gripping my hair tightly with both hands. I concentrate on breathing. I hear them screaming for help, my own cries drowning in my ears. I'm choking all over again, the salt-water taste burned into my mouth. Fear overwhelms me; I can't breath. I can't think. I can't move. My heart is aching. It's smaller now. It's harder to feel my feet and hands. I'm always dizzy. There's never enough blood; my heart is _always pounding_.

"**The plane crashed. We're stranded on an island."**

So calm. I envy him. I wanted to be calm like him…but I was so scared.

I am so scared.

I am turning into something…something not human.

_I am dying._

"We're not going to be rescued…are we…" 

-V-

TBC 


	2. Never Be Taken Alive

_Author's Note: Prepare for a long one folks. is screwing this thing up, and the chapter may or may not be working. If you're seeing this note, then the chapter is working. If you've gotten six thousand author alerts, I apologize for all that…_

_I forgot to mention that this story was inspired by and based off of Dr. Franklin's Island. To be perfectly honest, I wasn't thinking of LOST at all when I wrote it. I was surprised at the reviews mentioning it, but I can assure you that the only **real** similarity between LOST and this fic will be the fact that they're stranded on an island. I've done some major changes to the plot, to make this more fanfic-ish and to throw off people who've read Dr. Franklin's Island._

Also, we're going to pretend this takes place on Earth. But, we're going to pretend that Spira is a country on Earth, and that the world of FF8 and all the places in FFX(2) are in this Spira. The Kingdom Hearts worlds are going to be in America. Sorry if that's confusing…

_I also apologize in advance for a fairly boring but necessary chapter, it doesn't go very deep. It'll pick up soon enough. I'm already ready to get into the gorier, creepier parts. Heh. I would individually thank all my reviewers, but we can't do that anymore. So thanks guys. It means a lot to me._

XxXxXxX 

The first thing that told me I wasn't in Kansas anymore was the crying of seagulls. As far as I knew, seagulls did not flock in Traverse Town, nor were they found on airplanes. I was in one of the two, or so I thought. The next thing to catch my attention was the fact that I was warm. No, actually, I was burning up. Was I sick? I swallowed and found my throat was sore and dry. What was going on? And why was I on my stomach?

I heard a sudden, painfully loud shriek and my eyes snapped open. Immediately they closed again, protesting the excruciatingly blinding sunlight. Sunlight? I tried to speak but all that I could manage was a garbled, hoarse moan.

"Who are you? What's going on?" The Shriek demanded. Did she have to be so _shrill_ with the panic and the hysteria?

A new voice, thankfully a lower, calmer one, spoke next. "I don't know. You were washed up on shore."

"Washed up?" The Shriek exclaimed.

"We were on a plane-" The voice managed to stay level, despite its change in volume. "The plane crashed. We're stranded on an island."

There was silence from the Shriek. I could hear the sounds of the ocean in the not-so-far distance. The plane crashed. My plane. I'd been in the ocean; there was a storm. I couldn't breathe…there had been no surface. I'd washed onto a beach. It was dark. I was alive.

"Is _she_ dead?" It took me a second to recognize the Shriek's voice without the…well, shrieking.

There was a blissfully cool shadow blocking the sun now. I felt the prickly stare. I cracked one eye open, hesitant to reveal the fact that I was alive. What if I was on an island full of headhunters? I was looking up into the face of a rather mean and intimidating man, with long dark brown hair, a creepy scar running between his eyes, and a scowl. I could see how the Shriek might have been a bit nervous.

"Alive." He observed, folding his arms over his chest and looking over his shoulder.

I turned my head to the side, swallowing repeatedly in hopes of softening my throat. "S-stranded?" My voice cracked, but it was a considerable step up from the dry moan.

The Shriek, or who I assumed to be the Shriek, had prominent wide green eyes that had a continually surprised look about them. It was the first thing I noticed. The second was her hair. It was a deep red, almost brown color. Bits and sections stuck out in wild flips, the rest plastered to her pale, terror-stricken face.

"Are we the only survivors?" I asked when no one spoke. The urge to sit up was overwhelming, but my body wouldn't listen. Panic rose within me. What if I was paralyzed? I flexed my fingers, calmed down considerably, and struggled to sit up.

"As far as I know." Scarface answered, looking out at the ocean's horizon. "I woke up down the beach; you two were right here." He inclined his head slightly to the right.

The Shriek was looking dangerously close to tears. "What if we're it? What if this place is deserted?"

Scarface said nothing, his brow furrowing slightly. I stretched my legs out, inspecting the damage. As far as I could tell I had made it out fairly clean. I had the occasional bruise and bump, and quite a few shallow looking scrapes – but nothing serious. I brought my hand up to run it through my black hair, brushing the bangs out of my face. _Ow_… I pulled my hand away, inspecting it as well. Blood.

"You're cut." The Shriek sniffled, walking over to me. She leaned down and glanced at my eyes.

"Oh," I said stupidly. My forehead stung. "Is anyone else hurt?" I looked her over. Her shorts were tattered and her yellow top had been ripped across the stomach. She looked to have avoided serious injuries too.

"No I'm okay."

"Fine." Scarface replied, turning to walk a little further down the beach.

The Shriek watched him for a minute, then turned back to me. "Do you remember much?" She asked, her wide eyes gazing into mine. She had an unnerving stare.

I shook my head slowly, trying to recall the crash. "All I know is…they were saying to put our seatbelts on. And then I remember being in the water with the storm and the waves…" And the drowning. "Do you remember?"

The Shriek shook her head sadly, her dried, sandy hair following closely. "As much as you."

I didn't know what to say. Was there anything to say? What exactly could comfort someone at a time like this anyway? There should have been greeting cards like, 'Hey get rescued soon' or 'Shipwrecked. Wish you were here.' "What's your name?" That was a fair enough start. I couldn't very well call her 'the Shriek' forever.

She blinked, seeming to forget that she even had a name. "Selphie. Tilmitt." She answered brokenly. "You?"

"Yuffie. Kisaragi." I mimicked her. It wasn't to be mean; I was hoping to lighten the tension. It hadn't even begun to sink in yet.

Selphie smiled. "Okay Yuffie! Can you stand up?" She asked, crawling back to her feet and brushing the sand off her knees.

I answered by carefully bringing myself to my full height, wobbly at first but getting progressively steadier. My head cleared quickly. "Do you think we should…" I trailed off, glancing around. The island felt impossibly bright. I knew what we needed to do, to an extent, but I had no idea how to go about it. Sure I'd read books about castaways; I'd had to do a three-page essay on The Lord of the Flies, but thrown in the situation, I was clueless.

There were many things to do, like searching for survivors, determining if the island was inhabited or deserted, creating an SOS signal of some sort, finding food and fresh water, scouring the shore for washed up supplies or valuables or luggage…the list was endless. Their smartest route would have been to find or create a shelter.

"Should we focus on tonight and make a…a lean-to or something?" I looked over at the brunette, my hands on my waist.

Selphie chewed on her bottom lip thoughtfully. "Maybe…maybe there's other people here. Best case scenario, we're on a celebrity-filled island resort." She giggled. I wondered if it was some sort of defense mechanism, her cheerfulness. Maybe it was just denial. Then again, maybe _I_ was still in denial too.

"We'll do both," Scarface's voice startled me from behind. "We'll walk the beach and look for food and water. When it gets dark, we'll set up camp for the night." He made it sound so effortless, like that was the most logical, simple answer. Then again, it _was_.

XxXxXxX

I sucked in my breath, hissing in pain. "Ow…" I breathed, biting my lip. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Sora looking uncomfortably at me.

"Okay?" He asked, standing off to the side, his hands buried in his pockets. His tan shorts were still damp, slightly frayed, and ripped in random places.

I nodded, leaning my weight against the rough bark of a tree. My ankle burned painfully, despite lifting the pressure. "Sorry, I just have to stop for a second." I kept my eyes to the ground, trying to gather my courage.

"I…could….um, help you." Sora spoke up again, still more hesitant, and much meeker.

"No I'm okay." I said quickly, straightening. The last thing I wanted was to be pitied or seen as a burden by a guy I barely even knew. The sun was rapidly sinking, inching down the evening sky between the forest leaves. The trees were beginning to cast long shadows across the brush, making it even more difficult to traverse. Especially because we were both barefoot.

"Come on if we don't get to shore by nightfall…" I trailed off, playing absently with the necklace around my throat. The only reason it had survived the plane crash was because I'd slid it in my pocket before the plane had ever even taken off. I was sure it would have been torn away when…

"Does the ocean sound any closer to you?" Sora asked, tilting his head.

I listened carefully for a few seconds, then shook my head. "No, I think it's just echoing. The wind is pretty strong too." I pointed out as the treetops rustled.

"Well there has to be a break somewhere," He said firmly. "We just gotta find it. Come on," He slid his arm around my waist then, holding me sideways against his thin frame. "It'll be quicker this way." He explained in a very business-like tone. I just nodded, allowing him to help me. Pride was a luxury we couldn't afford in this situation. For all we knew, we were the only people on the island.

We wandered the 'path' in silence, both concentrating on where we stepped. I could tell he was getting nervous the darker it became. I was just beginning to worry we'd never get out of here when he stopped. His arm tightened around me. "Did you hear that?" He asked in a low voice, scanning the area ahead of them.

I hadn't heard anything…at first. My heart sped up though, when the familiar and strangely comforting sound of waves beating against a shore met my ears. "The ocean!" I exclaimed, nearly breaking away from his grip, my ankle forgotten in my relief.

I made a move to limp forward but he caught my arm, yanking me back and nearly causing me to fall. "No," An odd expression settled on his boyish face. "A voice."

I blinked at him. "What voice?" I asked in a whisper.

"Shh," He replied, dropping my arm and planting that hand firmly on my shoulder. He turned to look at me. His bright blue eyes were full of poorly suppressed fear, but his face remained calm. My heartbeat increased again. Obviously he didn't think it was a good kind of voice. "Stay here." He commanded quietly.

"What? Stay – no. No I'm going too." I argued without hesitation.

"_Kairi_ – stay right here." He ignored my indignant outburst, turning to walk forward again.

"Sora!" I whisper-screamed, torn between fear and anger. The sun was sinking rapidly in front of us. Behind me, the black-blue sky was bruised with stars, only just visible between the treetops. Shadows were flowing across the ground, slinking closer and closer, threatening to swallow me. I _hated_ the dark. Sora continued walking forward slowly, his hand held up behind him towards me. I whined under my breath, shifting my weight even further off my injured ankle. "Sora!" I groaned in frustration.

The brown-haired boy turned around then, seeming equally agitated. "Shut _up_!" He shushed, giving me a _look_. He took another step backward and, without warning, he plummeted silently into earth.

XxXxXxXx

_Yeah…odd place to end isn't it. I'm going to try to keep chapters short, and then update quicker, instead of month-long waits. I think my style of writing has changed. This chapter feels different. Hmph. On another note, I must ask…what does **HIFL** mean…_


	3. Something In This Air Tonight

_A/N: Sorry about the last chapter, and all it's difficulties. If you didn't get the full chapter, you should go back and read it, otherwise this chapter won't make much sense. I'm still in the crap phase of this story. I can't wait for it to get more interesting._

_The wait wouldn't have been so long if I hadn't spent two weeks correcting and changing this chapter around, and I'm still not happy with it. I'm taking my teacher's advice and trying to be less detailed in the way I write, so that explains the different feeling I think the writing gives off._

_Rather blatant reference to LOST in this chapter by the way, cookies for whoever finds it._

_XxX_

"We've been walking for hours and I'm _starving_! Can't we stop and set up camp here? The sun's already going down, look!" I complained, pointing at the sinking orange sphere, the very thing making me so miserable, as it made its way toward the horizon.

Selphie hmphed in agreement, but Leon, Scarface's real name, ignored us. He continued walking through the sand with little to no difficulty. Selphie and I had lagged behind, trying to figure out how he hadn't passed out yet. Leather wasn't exactly breathable.

Over time, he'd shed his jacket and was now wearing a simple white wife beater, soaked with sweat and seawater. Selphie and I were unfortunate in that the clothing we wore was just necessary to stay decently clad. Not that it really mattered at that point.

It was still overwhelmingly hot, despite the easing sun. We had only stopped our trek twice, resting for only moments before trudging forward again. We had hardly eaten anything either, only a few bites of the coconuts that we'd found. It was hardly worth the work of breaking them open. We'd had to use sharp rocks and sticks to beat them senseless, which had made me feel like a complete and total idiot. I was beginning to feel like a real cast away.

"There's _no one_ else here," I spoke again, getting sick of the silence. "We might as well _stop_ for the day."

"There might be more survivors." Leon replied.

"We've walked the same beach all afternoon. If there were more survivors, they're probably back near _our_ starting place!" I argued, pushing my sweaty bangs off of my forehead, feeling the tender scab forming. I was starting to wish I'd taken a few extra gulps from the freshwater pool we'd found an hour ago.

Leon paused in his stride, turning to face the woods. "You're right; this island could be even bigger than we realize."

"_Thank_ you," Selphie sighed heavily, plopping onto the sand and falling on her back. Her face was as burned as mine felt. Even Leon's face was flushed. He looked at her for a few minutes, seeming to be deep in thought.

I turned toward the woods, peering though the trees and brush. "Hello!" I shouted, cupping my hands around my mouth. "Is anyone out there!" I glanced back at the other two, waiting to see if there was any answer. I heard nothing. "See?" I shrugged. "Nobody."

"You better hope you didn't attract some psycho, or a bear or something." Selphie said, sitting up. Her entire backside was covered in sand.

"A bear? On a tropical island?" I grinned. Those odds were against us.

Selphie frowned. "Hey, you never know!"

"The skies are clear," Leon broke in suddenly in that calm way of his. "We'll be find to sleep under the stars. We should build a fire, soon."

"Ugh! It's so hot though." I whined. The thought of _more_ heat made me nauseous.

Leon turned his navy eyes on me. They seemed to bore holes in my skull, taking on an intensity of their onw. "It'll be colder at night." He answered evenly.

"Oh," I said, shrugging. I'd never been on a tropical island; I didn't know the laws of the land. Suddenly, there was a shrill scream from the woods. I froze, my heart jumping into my throat. Selphie scrambled to her feet at the same time Leon began jogging toward the trees. I followed quickly, trying to catch a glimpse of anyone through the trees. "Hello?" I yelled again, ducking a few low branches. The leaves and twigs snapped under my sneakers.

That was when I spotted a small figure limping toward us. "Help, over here!" She cried. Leon pushed past me, his long strides carrying him to her in practically no time. I had a hard, awkward time keeping up, and I could hear Selphie having just as much trouble behind me.

The girl, I noticed, had short red hair that was plastered to her head, still damp looking. She wore a skort, one that had a ragged rip up the side completely, revealing the purple shorts underneath. Her shirt was a simple pink tanktop and looked to be perfectly in tact, save for a few dirt stains.

Right away I noticed she was barefoot, and seemed to be favoring her right leg. Then I saw her ankle was swollen, the nasty color of an eggplant. "Over here," She panted pointing to a small path between the trees.

"He just...fell i-into this hole. I told him I'd go get help, it's…right…right here…" She led them clumsily through the trees, pointing to a deep cavern in the earth. "Sora!" She called, leaning forward slightly. Selphie and I shared a look, while Leon moved closer. "Careful!" The girl gasped, biting her nail. "Don't fall in too."

Leon waved at her semi-impatiently, seeming put off that she would assume him incapable of taking care of himself. Typical male. He stood cautiously at the edge and peered in, quiet for a few long moments. I stared into the dark depths as well, finding nothing but dirt. The hole couldn't have been more than six or seven feet deep, but there was something odd about it. It didn't look like any normal gorge…it almost looked…like some sort of trap.

"Leon…" Selphie said timidly.

"There's no one there." Leon answered, shaking his head. All eyes focused on the girl.

"What?" She gasped, her blue eyes wide. "No, he fell. He fell in this hole and I told him to hold on, that I'd find a way to get him out…" She hobbled over to the edge, looking rather desperate. "Sora!"

Selphie and I exchanged looks. Leon reached out, slightly hesitant, but the girl didn't go any further. "Have you eaten anything?" He asked, his usually dull, gruff voice a little less indifferent. He was thinking the same thing Selphie and I was. She wasn't in her right mind.

The girl hesitated to tear her gaze away from the hole, giving us all a frantic look. "No," She seemed tired and ran a dirty hand through even dirtier hair. "I don't understand! We were right here! How could he just disappear like that!" She appeared to be talking more to herself now than any of us.

Leon turned to me, fixing that intense stare on mine. "Take her back to the shore, and I'll look for this boy." He said in a low voice, nodding at Selphie as well. I felt important, and in turn, stupid, but important nonetheless. I had a job now, one that didn't consist of whining and being a general nuisance. Granted, the job was to take care of the crazy person, but that was neither here nor there.

As Leon began trekking further into the woods, Selphie and I took over the girl. I slid an arm around her slim waist, able to hoist her up somewhat thanks to my taller stature. She and Selphie were about the same height, so she just let the girl put her arm over her shoulders.

"He really was there. I don't understand…we met before the crash. We _met_. I didn't…he's not in my…" I was guessing the girl was beyond shock, beyond all rational thought. Maybe she was the only one of us that had begun to accept the situation – I knew I was still expecting a huge rescue ship to come gliding over the horizon any moment and wisk us all off to the wonderful world of hot showers, comfy beds, and double cheeseburgers.

"What's your name?" I asked, cheerfully looking for something to distract her from the distraught babbling.

"Kairi," She answered immediately. "My name is Kairi Basuq, I'm from Hollow Bastion, and my plane was delayed. I was supposed to be in Spira yesterday, but the flight had been cancelled." She added rapidly, almost as though she was trying to prove she was telling the truth. To prove she _wasn't_ crazy.

"I'm from Trabia!" Selphie chirped, sounding as positive as I had. This brought out the tiniest of smiles from Kairi, which made me feel as though there had been some sort of victory.

"I'm from Traverse Town, but I was going to Spira. I'm starting my first year of college in Dollet." I joined in. Sand crunched under our feet as we exited the forest, onto the orange-painted beach.

"I hate to bring this up, but we need to think about sleeping." Selphie said as we helped Kairi to the ground near the ocean's border. The water's foamy edge would sweep up and flood her, allowing her to wash some of the dirt away.

"And she needs to eat. Weren't there more of those coconut trees close?" I looked over Kairi's head at Selphie as I bent down to let the water run over my hands.

"No," Kairi said, looking at me with her dark blue eyes, her expression lifeless. "I'm not hungry."

"You should eat something," Selphie prodded, looking at the redhead in concern. "It won't be much but…at least some water. There's a spring we found, only a twenty-minute walk at best. I can hurry…" Even I could see through the brave front. Selphie looked about as excited at the prospect of running off alone as I felt about being in a dark room full of spiders.

"No, no one else is running off. It's not smart to be alone." Kairi protested again.

There was a loud thump behind us, causing our heads to turn. "She's right. It'll be dark soon and too dangerous to split up." Leon's voice was, as usual, annoyingly calm.

"Did you…" Kairi's hopeful voice trailed off, his eyes answering her question.

"There's no one around." Leon said, nearly looking sorry. He studied her face a few seconds longer, finally shaking his head and pinching the bridge of his nose. He walked off toward the forest line again, grumbling something about more wood. I realized the thump had been the sound of firewood hitting the sand.

"I take it we're definitely sleeping outside tonight then." Selphie sighed, looking wearily at the meager woodpile. I felt her sentiments exactly.

XxX

_Why is it so dark...?_

"…Of course not. The guy put up one heck of a struggle though, I'll tell ya."

"Would you shut up already? We're not supposed to talk about it."

"We're the only ones around, jeez, lighten up already."

"There're eyes everywhere, you know that."

"Eyes, _eyes_. Ya know, he talks a big game but when it boils down to it, he's nothing but a-"

"Shut _up_."

"Sheesh. Somebody got their panties in a bunch. I'm all for this stuff and whatever, but I still don't know how you deal with it. I'd have already told _daddy_ to suck my-"

"I'm warning you…"

"Ah, whatever…h-hey…is he waking up?"

"Who? The guy? …Shh, quiet. Should you do it, or should I?"

"You do it. I had to do it the first time."

"Pansy. Give it to me. Don't know why I keep you around, utterly worthless…"

_Ow… it hurts… what'd they do…? _

"Careful, you're starting to sound like your old man."

_Why can't I see anything? Why are…they fading…stop…_

"Ugh…shut up...just cause you…"

…………

XxX

If there was one thing I was learning from my experiences on the island, it was that there was a reason matresses weren't made with sand. Not only was it hard and uncomfortable, it was sticky, and itchy, and clung to every possible square inch of my body. The granules were like tiny leeches, latching on for a ride with no intentions of letting go.

It left red indentions on my skin, was easily sucked up into my nose, and didn't taste all that great. Oh yeah, and spiders liked to burrow in it, popping up to scare the daylights out of me. Not that I had any daylight in the first place. Oh no, see, all that crap about the moon being bright enough to guide, the nightlight of the sky, it was all bull.

When the sun had gone down, and the fire was bright and warm, when the rest of the island was bathed in chilly darkness, everything was okay. We were all hungry, thirsty, tired, sore, and a little shell shocked, but it had been a numb feeling. One of dull warmth, of safety in a dangerous situation.

I couldn't have imagined being alone. I wouldn't have known what to do. At first. Sure, yeah, I'da taken control and made my rickety shelter and spelled out my SOS in the sand and done everything I was big enough to do, but in the end, it would have broken me. We sat, the orange flames reaching for the dark sky, the blank faces sitting around me in silence. I was strangely comforted.

And then, ya know, sleep came. Soon, Leon rolled off to the side, burrowing in his nice leather jacket, seeming to nod off without another thought. After that, Kairi murmured a soft, still dull goodnight and rested on the opposite side of the fire.

Selphie and I were social butterflies, awkward silence even more awkward and silent when it was only us. Soon we scooted together, our backs to the fire and our knees drawn to our chests, speaking in low tones about our lives and what we'd been doing before the crash.

Selphie had been visiting her grandparents in Traverse, originally from Trabia, a small city in the country of Spira. She was an only child, her older sister having died when she was a baby. It was the first time I had really picked up on her accent. It was light, lilting, and almost northern, with a slightly higher pitch when she got excited. She was optimistic, hyper, outgoing, friendly, everything I was. Whether this combination would eventually clash wasn't something I worried about.

She was someone to cling to right away, a common situation weaving ties through the forming friendship. I told her about my plans to start my first year of college in Luca, how I was planning to major in political science and work my way into the FBI. I wanted to be an agent. I wanted to carry a gun. I wanted to kick bad guy ass. I'd seen too many movies.

Still, the conversation drifted into giggly recollections of childhood dreams and boasts for the future. When I told her I had wanted to be the greatest ninja ever, she laughed at me and I dumped a handful of sand in her lap. Shortly after, we decided to get some rest. Ol' Scarface (who had been snoring quite loudly) would be up at the crack of dawn, ready for another lovely, hopless ten mile romp aorund the island.

Selphie had gotten a good laugh out of my initial nickname for them, and resolved to start calling Leon 'Scarface'. Behind his back of course because, as I reminded her, he looked able and likely to go serial killer at the push of a wrong button. We settled into the sand, a short distance apart. I closed my eyes and pretend I was in my new dorm and my only worry was about class the next day. I forced myself to forget the whole stranded on an island problem.

Of course, I only managed to drift off for a little while, or so it seemed. The sky was still pitch black. The moon was bright, but it was disturbingly dark. The fire had dimmed to red crackling embers, and the ocean felt _loud_. It swam relentlessly in my ears, mingling with Leon's snoring.

When I looked, Selphie was sprawled out, sleeping and looking peaceful. On the other side of the smoldering wood was Kairi, who had curled into a ball with her chin tucked against her chest, head resting on her elbow.

And then it got colder. It seemed to drop a few degrees with the realization that I was alone, even though people surrounded me. I rolled over, mimicking Kairi in position, ignoring the itchy, cold sand, and forced my eyes shut for a second time, concentrating on breathing and counting the seconds between the waves.

Tomorrow night, I would find a better sleeping arrangement.

_XxX_

TBC 


	4. The Quiet Things No One Ever Knows

XxXxX

"Hey…" A light voice from the aisle caught my attention. I turned to find an attractive, petite redhead with a timid smile looking at me. "Hi," She said, clutching the strap of her bag tightly.

I smiled back. "Hi?" _Do I know her from somewhere? She doesn't look very familiar._

"Um," She suddenly lowered her head and dug around in the black bag hanging from her shoulder, until she came up with a plane ticket. "I know I'm supposed to have the window seat, but I was just wondering if maybe you wouldn't mind um…switching? I have this fear of…of flying and I feel better in the middle." The nervous smile was back. She shifted forward slightly so that a man could get past.

I really didn't care where I sat. The window probably wouldn't feel much different from the middle seat in my opinion. "Sure!" I said, wincing weakly as I turned to move. I hoped I hadn't sounded too eager. It was easy for me to come off as a nerd, an image I'd been hoping to shake now that I had been given the chance for a fresh start, living with my dad in Kilika Port.

"Thanks," The girl flashed me a brilliant smile this time, one that wasn't hindered by inhibition or worry. "I'm Kairi." She said once the bag was tucked safely away in the storage compartments above our heads. Kairi held out her hand for me to shake.

I took it. "I'm Sora." I replied, still smiling.

She pulled away to put her seatbelt on, tucking her hair behind her ear with her free hand. "Thanks again. I know it seems silly but I've never liked flying and if I can actually see us flying..." She shuddered. "I bet I've seen every scary movie there is about plane crashes. Have you seen Final Destination? If you've got a phobia of flying, that is _not_ the movie to watch just so you know."

I blinked. "I...haven't seen it. I know how you feel though! I don't mind flying so much, I just don't like flying over the ocean, with the sharks and everything." I noticed her ashen face and quickly covered up. "But planes today, they're so advanced. Really, plane crashes aren't common at all." I laughed nervously.

A grumpy-looking older man, probably in his mid forties, sank into the chair beside Kairi, not bothering to look at either of us. He snapped on his seatbelt and pulled open a magazine that he'd been holding. He cleared his throat and Kairi and I glanced at each other.

"Ow," She whispered suddenly, reaching up to rub the back of her neck. I gave her a strange look and she shook her head. "This necklace. It pinches sometimes." She said with a sigh as she unclasped it and slid it into her pocket. I nodded and glanced out the window. The plane would be taking off soon…

XxX

I awoke to the sound of footsteps crunching through the sand. Right away I was aware of being cold and damp. Shifting slightly, bringing my face up from the crook of my elbow, I realized the reason. It was just barely morning, the sun peering over the edge of the ocean. Leon's large frame was bent over the charred remains of last night's fire.

Taking a quick survey, I glanced over to find Selphie and Yuffie still sacked out. I slowly unfolded myself, cracking quite a few bones in the process. I was _sore_. The movement caught Leon's attention and he spared a glance at me over his shoulder. Upon realizing I was awake, he straightened and turned, walking toward me with that unreadable expression on his face.

I have to admit, being around him made me nervous. He was pretty scary looking, even though he seemed nice enough. In a low voice, as though trying not to wake the others, he said, "Come with me."

"Where?" I asked, slightly groggy and hoarse from sleeping outside. My hair felt damp and I was desperately in need of a shower.

"To get water." He replied.

"Shouldn't we tell the others?"

He spared another look in the two girls' direction, thinking. 'They'll be fine," He shrugged. "Can you walk?"

I looked down at my forgotten ankle. It was still as dark and swollen as it had been yesterday, and the attention to it had reminded me of the ache. "Yeah I can." I nodded. It was difficult only at first, and every inch of my body protested. Looking out over the ocean, forgetting the situation, it was a beautiful morning. The skies were still clear, the sun was going to be bright, and the air (so far) was cool.

Leon waited for me to get my bearings, shifting from one foot to the other. When I nodded again, he began to walk down the beach, and I followed.

XxXxX

When I woke up, Leon and Kairi were gone.

I instinctively panicked, searching the sand for Selphie. She was still asleep. The fire had nearly completely died, and only a pile of black and gray ash remained. There were footsteps around it, and I followed them with my eyes. As for the distance, it was too hard to decipher from my sitting position where the footsteps and the natural indentations in the sand differed.

"Selphie," I called loudly, climbing onto my knees.

"Mmph…" She grumbled, brow furrowing. "What?"

"Do you know where Leon and Kairi went?"

Her eyes opened and she looked around blearily, her bangs falling into her face. "They aren't here?"

"No," I paused, scanning the tree line a ways up. "Should we look for them?"

Selphie rubbed at her eyes, breathing in slowly. "Probably," She let out her breath in a rush. "You think maybe…" She looked at me and I knew instantly what she was thinking. What if that boy, Sora's disappearance wasn't something Kairi's delerium had cooked up? What if Leon and Kairi had somehow disappeared like him? Unreasonable fear settled into my gut and I could tell it was setting up for a long while.

XxXxX

We agreed not to go too far into the woods for fear we'd get lost. I kept my suspicions about that hole to myself. I didn't want Selphie to think I was some paranoid freak thinking this was all some sort of conspiracy. The woods were dark though, shady and damp. The soggy twigs and leaves gave way without a fight, and I found myself nearly slipping frequently.

"Maybe they went to look for more survivors." Selphie suggested, picking a short purple leaf from a tree as we passed.

"Or maybe they went to add more rocks." I glanced over my shoulder out of habit. We'd arranged a bunch of good-sized rocks, ones that we hoped a plane would be able to see, into a slightly pathetic half 'S' yesterday at our starting place. Good rocks were hard to come by, and we'd decided to keep adding whenever we could. It wasn't much, but it was something. "Maybe someone else showed up. Maybe they could only save two people at a time and are going to come back for us."

"Maybe we're on a TV show and they were just actors, and we're in the middle of some dramatic climax."

"Maybe we were moved in our sleep."

"Maybe aliens abducted them."

I snorted. "Yes! Aliens. Aliens that suck out brains and leave their victims lifeless zombies out for revenge against the living."

"And then Leon and Kairi will come back drooling and growling, and then we'll do that overdone chase scene through the woods in the middle of the night-"

"And then I'll fall, and you'll stop to help and I'll cry-"

"_No, no! Save yourself_! And then I'll leave your sorry butt in the mud and run for my life."

"Oh thanks!" I rolled my eyes. "And then, I'll be turned into a zombie too and we'll hunt you down and turn you into one of us. Then we'll spend the rest of our days here, shooting down planes with our special coconut-palm tree guns."

"And raise an _army_ of tropical zombies! Then we can take over the world with our brain-sucking powers!" Selphie nodded. "I like that plan. Let's say that happens."

"Well, something like that needs to happen." I declared, hopping onto a tree root to see how long I could balance. The seagulls called loudly from the shore. I knew we weren't too far. "We're in the middle of an adventure here, ya know. There better be zombies or aliens or bears or monsters."

"Oh, careful what you wish for. Adventure's great, but I'm _way_ too young and gorgeous to die. I've still gotta become a famous actress." Selphie looked up at the sky through the treetops.

Something in the way she said that struck a cord in me. _To die._ There was a very good possibility that we would die on this island. And even though she was joking, it still scared me. I didn't want to die. "Maybe we just need to create adventure for ourselves. If nothing interesting happens, we'll kick start something." I shrugged off the sudden slap of reality, returning to the comforting lights of denial.

"Deal," Selphie agreed. She grabbed a tree trunk and begin to swing herself around it. "Wouldn't it be cool if they wrote a book-" her hand slipped and she stumbled, landing on her knees with a small shriek.

I instantly jumped off the root. "Sel – what…?" I reached her just as she raised up. Her hands were caked with mud and leaves. Her face was what got me. It was suddenly very pale. She looked frightened.

"Did you see that?" She asked, searching the space between two distant trees. Her determined, fierce expression reminded me of Kairi. She had been so sure that Sora was there moments before.

I stared at the same spot, but didn't see anything unusual. "See what? An animal?" I asked, suddenly nervous. What kind of animals lived around here anyway? Suddenly it felt like there were eyes everywhere. The back of my neck tingled.

Selphie shook her head. "Nothin…it wasn't…maybe. I don't know it was…dark. Big. I didn't see much of it I just glanced over and…" she tried to brush her hands off and I noticed how badly she was shaking. It wasn't a hallucination. She genuinely though she saw something. "Too much talk of monsters. I creeped myself out." She gave a light laugh.

I nodded, taking her by the elbow and helping her up. "C'mon, I don't think they went this way. Maybe they just went to get food or something. We should go up to that spring and get a drink." I was anxious to get out of there. And judging by the quickness with which Selphie agreed, I could tell she wasn't all that comfortable here either.

XxXxX

"You know, you're not supposed to drink fresh water like this without boiling it first." I said quietly, running my hand through the large pool of clear water. Of course, I'd already taken quite a few large gulps anyway. I'd always been such a stickler for germs and safety measures but...survival was survival.

A medium-sized waterfall, maybe ten or twelve feet tall poured the liquid into the deep chasm. It was big enough for three or four people to be in comfortably, if they didn't move around too much, but it would probably only reach my chest, if that. It was enough though, and the mist from the falls was cool against my face. I could feel it weighing down my hair.

Leon just glanced at me, choosing to remain silent. He didn't say much, unless it pertained to being on the island or survival in general. He was the reason people had phobias of awkward silences. He turned his navy gaze toward the waterfall, trailing the stream over the diminutive boulders. "There's a stream," He spoke suddenly, running the back of his hand across his forehead. "It should lead to a river or-"

"A larger body of water. To the ocean." I finished, following his upward gaze.

He nodded. "But the ocean," He pointed in the opposite direction. "Is that way."

I peered through the trees, still running my hands through the water. "Yeah, but this is an island, isn't it? We're surrounded by water, so logically, a stream running in any direction here will lead to the ocean." I pointed out, having a feeling he already knew this.

But he didn't say anything, just nodding in that slow way of his, then turning to look at me. He seemed to be examining me. I glanced down at myself self-consciously, wondering what he was looking at. He must have noticed because his lips twitched. "Did you hurt your ankle in the crash?" He asked, drawing one knee up beside the edge of the pool, resting his arm on it.

I looked down at my ankle. "I think so. It must have been, since I woke up with it this way-"

"Woke up?" Leon interrupted, suddenly looking curious.

I blinked, wondering if I'd said something wrong. "Er, yeah. I'm not sure where I was though. I know I was in the woods somewhere cause Sora-" I hesitated, my eyes snapping to his. I searched his face for a reaction, maybe a flicker of disbelief or a glimmer of sympathy, but there was nothing but curiosity.

He nodded nightly, urging me to continue. I swallowed, playing with the hem of my torn skort. "Sora, actually, was the one that woke me up. We met on the plane beforehand. I traded seats with him because I hate to fly and I thought being in the middle would…I dunno, make me feel safer or something. But…I was so relieved when I realized what had happened and who he was. Especially when it finally sunk in that I'd _survived_. If I had been alone…" I glanced at him again, then back to the water.

"He decided we should try to get to a shore, then we could follow it and find…well, people. And he heard someone yelling, he heard voices and told me to wait." I paused again, recalling the event vividly. I could see his expression, see him stepping back, the look of surprise, and then suddenly he was…gone.

"I told him to stay there and that I would come back. I said, don't move I'll find a way to get you out. I figured since he'd voices and the ocean sounded close that maybe there was someone. So I yelled. It was…luck that you guys were there." I blinked, my eyes filling. "It was only a few seconds. I only left for…a _minute_. How did he get out? How does a person just _disappear_ in a minute?"

I looked at Leon, waiting for him to say something – anything to break the awkward silence, to make the echo of my voice vanish. He remained silent. "You think I'm crazy, don't you?" I asked, quietly, challenging his honesty with my gaze. He studied my face in an intensely unnerving sort of way. I had the faintest feeling that I was the one being interrogated. This man's effect on people was astounding.

He cleared his throat then and glanced up at the falls. "No. You're not crazy." He replied in that calm, easy-going way. For some reason, I felt ten times better. He sat back slightly, raising his face to the sky. "Do you remember anything immediately after the crash?"

I opened my mouth, prepared to answer, but stopped. I wracked my brain to find the smallest glimpse of a memory of two nights ago. To my surprise….I couldn't.

XxXxX

_AN: Yeah, so a bad place to leave off. Sorry about that. Unfortunately, my soul now belongs to NaNoWriMo for the next 24 days. Expect an update sometime in December. Happy Thanksgiving all! Oh, and reviewer replies can be found on my profile. Thanks all!_


	5. Play Crack The Sky

_A/N: Sorry for the wait. I should have a new computer and internet in 2 to 3 weeks, and updates will become regular again. _

XxXxXxX Yuffie XxXxXxX

The next day we found Suzy. No, we didn't know if that was her real name or not, but it was easier to give her a name then to call her 'the body'. She was washed up on the shore quite a distance away, just a speck from the place where we had officially set up camp. Selphie spotted her first, exclaiming eagerly that there was another survivor.

Leon and I wasted no time in dropping the makeshift 'hut' we were building. My heart was pounding from curiosity and excitement at first, but as we got closer, it began melting into fear and dread. Leon kept calling to her, but she remained on her stomach in the damp sand, unmoving. My suspicion was confirmed. Her body was bloated and pale, nearly matching her torn, white clothing. The waves ran up and down the bottom half of her body, threatening to drag her back out to sea. Her long, yellow hair was ratted and wet, spread out around her, hiding her face from us.

When we realized she was dead (at the same time I think) I stopped, hesitant to approach. Leon's strides were smaller, but he walked up close to her to lean down beside her body. "Is she…" Selphie called from a little ways away, her voice carrying. She was looking back and forth between Kairi and I, while Kairi struggled to catch up with us on her bad ankle.

Leon ran his hand over his face, rubbing his jaw as he looked down at the girl. I recognized that habit now as his way of showing helplessness. I nodded. A few still, silent moments later I heard sand crunching as Selphie began to trudge back to 'camp'. "We should bury her." I spoke. My tightened throat coupled with thirst had made my voice hoarse.

Leon nodded, but didn't move. His silence and blank stare had a very subduing effect on me. His sudden despondency was overwhelming me. I turned to walk back, following the beach with my eyes until they fell on the camp. I recognized Selphie's form sitting at the edge of the water, her legs stretched out in front of her so that the tide washed over them. Kairi was behind her, resting on her knees with her hands on Selphie's shoulders, her mouth moving silently. I realized Selphie was crying.

XxXxXxX Yuffie XxXxXxX

For about four days after the discovery of Suzy, more people began to wash ashore, as well as their body parts, clothing items, luggage, metal, etc. The people we found, we buried on shore, a good distance away. Selphie and I dug the shallow graves and Leon brought them there. We skipped ceremonies, mainly because we didn't know how to handle it, but I noticed Selphie spent a lot of her time at the makeshift burial ground. I didn't know why she insisted on visiting, but I didn't question it. If it was how she wanted to deal with it, then who was I to stop her?

Tomorrow would make a week on this island. Selphie and I had daily conversations about tomorrow. We'd come up with different reasons and ways and escapes about tomorrow. Each day was a new story, a new adventure, a new plan. Kairi kept track of our days on a large boulder a couple of feet from the forest line. She kept tabs every night at dusk, drawing a white line with a small rock. She spent a lot of her time to herself, and I would catch her staring into the forest, with occasional desperation. I knew she was looking for Sora.

Leon had kept us stocked in firewood, having spent over half a day doing nothing but gathering. He kept his silence, speaking only when necessary. We knew nothing about him. Up until yesterday, we had been sleeping near the fire, on a large pile of soft palm tree leaves. When a man's suitcase full of soaking wet, salt-crusted clothes floated up, we hung those clothes on branches to dry, and used them to wear when we slept. It made for much warmer nights.

We weren't eating like we should have been, obviously, and the only food that must have survived the plane crush were the six bottles of water that we'd managed to randomly collect during an evening walk and a soggy cardboard box full of bags of potato chips. We counted forty-six bags in all and left them and the water in the box.

We agreed to save the waters for emergencies only, gathering water from the spring in a large hunk of twisted metal from the plane. We used it as a sort of bucket to transport water from the spring. From there, we put it in a large, metallic, black box that we'd found washed up as well. None of us could figure out what it was, but it held up well beside a fire. Kairi insisted we boil the water before we drink it, but circumstances were difficult enough, so we compromised by putting it close to the fire and letting it warm.

So far, we'd gathered coconuts and a number of wild fruits, including an odd star-shaped fruit that tasted like orange and banana rolled into one, but we knew that supply stock would soon spoil. We picked what we needed when we needed it to prevent rotting. We were all hungry, I knew, but we said nothing. Thinking about it was bad enough, but talking about it made it worse. It made it real.

Yesterday, we found a deflated life raft in the morning and an open parachute that evening. It was like Christmas all over again. We'd immediately set to work with the parachute, hunting for more sturdy, tall sticks to prop the fabric up. We would use it as a tent, for shade and protection from rain. We'd spread out the raft all over the squished palm leaves to use for sleep.

Leon was at work with a sharp sliver of plane that he used as a knife to cut into a coconut. Selphie was on her back, with Kairi beside her, staring at the sky and laughing abut something. I was sitting on Kairi's rock, humming an old song I used to know. It was our break. It felt like we were always doing something and doing nothing at the same time. There was no time to question anything. It had been work. We were all tired, starving, dirty, and completely exhausted.

The thought that continued to manifest itself deep inside my mind, despite repeated attempts to divert my attention was the scariest thought of them all. It was the thought that we weren't gonna be rescued. It was the feeling of utter hopelessness, of fear, of loneliness, of homesickness, of anger. Why did this happen to me? To us? We weren't bad people. _I wasn't a bad person._

A loud curse shattered the moment and my head shot up. Leon was clutching his left hand, and blood was running through his fingers. I jumped off the rock at the same time Selphie climbed to her feet. "I cut my hand." Leon grumbled when the three of us crowded around him.

"Obviously." I said uneasily. The wound didn't look horribly deep, though quite painful. It was right through the tight skin between his thumb and forefinger and was bleeding profusely. It probably needed stitches.

"Go wash it off." Selphie suggested, pointing to the ocean. "Won't the salt like, sterilize it or something?" She added. Leon didn't answer, looking slightly annoyed with the three of us flocking around him like mother hen's-in-training. But we weren't stupid. That cut was less than shallow, and in a situation like this, that meager cut was lethal.

"I'll see if there's anything we can use for a bandage." Kairi suggested, hobbling away. The swelling and purple tint of her ankle had reduced greatly. The scrape on my forehead was healing up without too much complaint as well. All our bangs and bruises were beginning to fade, along with our weight. The lack of nutrition was already starting to become visible in our sunken eyes and sunburned faces. It was only a matter of time before the combination of hunger and exhaustion turned to sluggishness. It hadn't been like this in movies and books. There was shelter and food and magical fairies that led the stranded to sparkling freshwater streams. And those people were always rescued in the end.

Two nights ago, Kairi was the first to voice it. "We _could_ die here."

_We could die here._

And for a minute, none of us could move. But I had quickly changed the subject and declared that whoever died first would be dinner. A morbid concept, but in some strange way it lightened the mood.

"Uh, I think he took care of it already." Selphie pointed out, nodding toward Leon. He was standing waist deep in seawater, wrapping a white cloth around his bleeding hand. I noticed the long strip of skin around his side and realized he'd torn his shirt. For some reason, the sight made me even more uneasy.

XxXxXx Yuffie xXxXxXxX

That night, the wind picked up. I hadn't thought much about it, not until I noticed Leon acting strangely. He was even quieter than normal and he was looking increasingly worried. When he began pacing the shorefront, brooding at the horizon longer than usual, I started to pick up on something wrong.

Selphie was jabbering ninety miles a minute to Kairi and me about a really hot guy she'd met a few weeks ago. We were rearranging the half-dead palm leaves under the raft. "I'll be back in a second." I told her as I stood up. Selphie nodded, only hesitating for a moment before focusing her full attention on Kairi.

I was kinda nervous to approach Leon. He had never been mean, but he hadn't been exactly friendly either. Since intimidation had never stopped me before in my life, I forged ahead until I was standing beside him. The winds were getting progressively stronger and on the surface of the horizon dark, menacing clouds were taking shape.

"That…doesn't look good." I said at last. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him shift. "Do you think the tent will hold up if-"

"It's just going to rain." Leon replied hastily. He crossed his arms over his chest. "It may blow over."

"…Are we lookin' at the same clouds here, Leon? Just rain?"

"It'll be fine." Instead of sounding impatient, he sounded reassuring. More reassuring than he usually did anyway.

I looked forward and sighed. "Okay, but if it's a hurricane and our little hut-thing blows away, I'm holding you personally responsible." I warned with hands on hips.

He chuckled for once, breaking the expressionless mask. "…I'll make sure everything's in order." He said after a moment, casting a brief nod toward the tent.

"Yeah that's what I thought." I scoffed, actually smiling for the first time that day. Thunder rumbled in the distance and the calm moment faded. We headed back to camp.

XxXxXxX Kairi XxXxXxX

I thought the night would never end. It was by far the longest night of the entire ordeal so far, more miserable than even the first night and ten times colder and wetter. I don't think any of us got any sleep at all, with the wind and the rain and the thunder and the ridiculously bright lightening. The storm hit about an hour after sundown and lasted well into early morning.

Selphie and I were huddled with our backs against a tree beneath the thin fabric, with me wincing at the slightest gust that threatened to rip our unstable homestead to pieces. Leon was his normal self, sitting under the parachute with us, seemingly detached from him, the world, and any danger that might have been lurking in the dark depths beyond us. Yuffie, on the other hand, watched the waves fiercely roll against the shore, beaten by the pounding rain, illuminated by frequent, brilliant flashes of electricity.

In those brief moments where I could see her face, I recognized awe hidden in a slight smile. There was a sort of calmness radiating from her and Leon, one that covered me like a protective blanket and kept me from losing my composure. After all, if they were relaxed, why should I panic?

When the storm slowed and the clouds began to give way to the lightest tinge of pink, I finally managed to drift off. When I was conscious again, I realized just how bright the sun was. I rolled over, sticking to the cool, wet, rubber raft as I ran my hand over my face. Selphie was still sacked out beside me. Yuffie was sitting just outside the tent, apparently at work wringing out the water that the suitcase of close had collected despite our attempts to keep them dry.

I marveled for a moment at the pastel fabric flapping above me, wondering how it managed to survive the night, before I crawled out to sit next to the dark-haired girl. "Look, we made it." I yawned.

Yuffie grinned. "_That_ was incredible last night. I've never seen anything like that."

"Storms back home are nothing compared to that," I agreed. A glance around the island told me that practically nothing had changed. The water was foamy and dark due to the silt and sand that had been kicked up from the storm. There were palm leaves and broken branches strewn along the beach, products of the hurricane-esque winds. Leon was sitting next to the ocean. I didn't know what he was looking at. "So how're things?" I asked stupidly. I didn't know else to say. Yuffie and I weren't as close as we should have been.

Yuffie grinned at me again. "I'm fine, just fine, things are fine," She replied, passing over a couple wet shirts for me to squeeze out. "What about you?"

"Alright. Tired. Sore. How long have you guys been up?" Water dripped from the shirts onto my shorts in thin, weak streams.

"Not long. Probably half an hour, I don't even know…" She shrugged. "Time is kinda a lost concept on me anymore. It's not real important when you're stranded on an island and all – and besides, it's not like any of us have a working watch. Wish we did though. Hmm." She sighed. "It feels like we've been here for years, but at the same time, it feels like yesterday. If you weren't keeping track, I wouldn't have any idea…" Her grin had become slightly half-hearted.

I took the silent moment to survey her. She had dark brown eyes, slightly reddened from our living conditions, and black hair that once used to be stick-straight. Now it was a shaggy, tangled mess, just like the rest of ours. She was thin, very thin, and had seemed to lose even more weight in the short time we'd been here. Her features were gaunt and her originally tan face had taken on a much redder, sunburned look.

Yesterday, I had taken a good look at myself in the ocean and found that my ribs were actually beginning to show. I'd always been small and thin, but this was a new development. And to think, anorexic people didn't even eat as much as we were. I had gained a twisted sense of respect for the ones suffering from the disorder.

"Uh…hey can I…talk to you…I-it's sort of a question I guess." I looked over at her nervously. Age differences hadn't seemed to be that big of a deal in the past, but at that moment it felt like she was years ahead of me.

Yuffie glanced at me with an easy grin. "Hey, shoot. I'll tell ya everything I know."

"Um, heh…well, I was supposed to…well, ya know…" I cast a fleeting look in Leon's direction, and then in Selphie's to make sure they weren't really listening. Yuffie lowered the shirt to her lap, brow furrowed in confusion. I bit my lip. "Well I should have started a few days ago…ya _know_…" I gave her a meaningful look, one I hoped she'd pick up on. I'd never been one to easily open up, especially not about things as private and embarrassing as this.

Thankfully, comprehension dawned on her face. "_Oh_, you mean your period," She said effortlessly, shrugging as she picked the wet cloth back up. She stretched her right leg out in front of her. "So what about it?" She didn't seem the least bit uncomfortable.

"Well, I should have already started but I…haven't." I had never felt quite so immature before. It felt as though my face was on fire.

"Well, ya know, stress can do that to a person. Stress, and not sleeping for ages, and the fact that we're all pretty much starvin' around here…" She gestured towards the trees absently. "Don't worry. We'll…we'll figure out something," She told me with groundless confidence. "We'll figure out a way to get more fruit and…there'll be more stuff washing up on shore, and we'll get more water, and eventually we'll set to work on a much better _house_. Plus, we'll fish and we'll make, er, what're they called…spears! We'll make spears, and we'll hunt wild pigs and maybe a bird or two."

"Yeah, and besides, we don't know how long we'll be here." I added.

"Right! Exactly. Just um…don't worry about it and we'll deal with whatever when it happens. Right?" She reached out and patted my shoulder.

I put on a smile. She seemed so strong and…capable. She seemed untouchable. I didn't think that anything fazed her. She and Leon had appeared at ease since they'd first arrived. In fact, I don't think I'd ever heard Yuffie speak a negative word. If Selphie or I said anything remotely pessimistic, Yuffie would always come back with a witty or cheerful remark. I wished I could have been like her. So I mimicked her confidence and replied, "Right!"

XxXxXxXxYuffieXxXxXxX

A loud, terrified scream pierced the evening air. Immediately, I jumped out of the ocean water and grabbed my shirt off the beach as I rushed toward camp. Kairi was close behind me. When we reached the tent, I recognized Leon's comparatively giant frame towering over Selphie's nearly hysterical one.

"What happened?" Kairi gasped before I could catch my breath.

Leon looked over at us and I could clearly see relief in his eyes. "She…just…started er, uh…" It was the first time I'd heard him flustered.

"Snake." Selphie sobbed, calming slightly at the sight of us. Tears ran freely down her red face. "I-I was in the tent and there was a s-snake. Oh-God, I hate them…snakes." Her hand was clapped over her mouth and she was visibly trembling.

Kairi went to her right away, taking on the role of the 'mother', as she tended to do in these situations. I envied her ability to keep her cool while everyone else was losing their minds. It was as if crisis was when she operated best. Selphie simply collapsed against the smaller girl.

Leon ran a hand over his face, as he tended to do in awkward situations, the other arm tucked across his chest tightly. He watched the girls for a minute as Kairi muttered quiet words in the redhead's ear. "Fuck…" He breathed at last and walked off toward the trees.

I glanced at Kairi, questioning silently if I should stay. She shook her head slightly, so I jogged to catch up with Leon. I brought the shirt over my head as I did so. Modesty, while important, wasn't as big of a thing as it was in regular society. Really, wearing a bra around would be the same as a bikini, and much more practical around here, or so I consoled myself.

"Hey," I reached out and took his arm when I caught up, just in time to head up the woodsy path.

He didn't bother looking at me. "She's okay," I couldn't tell if that was a question or a statement.

"What happened?"

"She…started screaming and I was in here-" He flung his arm ahead to illustrate. "So I came out to see and she was…_crying_ about some snake or – fuck, I don't know. I think some grass snake was trying to find a dry spot for the night, found the raft, and found her." He shrugged, bending over to pick up a twig.

"I didn't know she was so scared of snakes."

Leon made a noise that sounded somewhere between a snort and grunt. "She's probably not." He didn't say anything else.

"Uh…what'dya mean?" I moved up a ways to walk beside him but kept my eyes on the ground so not to trip.

"Hmm," He sighed. "Sometimes, stress can do…_funny_ things to people. If you're not strong it'll..it'll make you crazy." I'd never heard him like this before. I was used to sure, calm, even Leon. Now he acted…shaken up.

"Oh…" A frightening thought. This place, this condition could make us all lose our minds. I instantly flashed back to the shadow Selphie had seen here with me. "This place is…"

Leon looked at me sharply. "It's what?"

I drew back. "Uh, it's creepy. Like…I've got this weird feeling about it." I stuttered.

Leon's dark eyes ran over my face, searching it. Finally he nodded. "Yeah," And that was the end of it.

I reached down to grab a dry stick, one that'd be perfect for firewood. "Are we gonna have-" I turned to realize he had been looking at me. "What?" I cut myself short. He shook his head and looked away, thin lips pressed together tightly. I forgot my question and shifted to another as I aught sight of his bandaged hand, the would from yesterday morning. "Let me see your hand-"

"It's fine," He replied hastily, moving it out of my reach.

"Let me – see!" I insisted. I managed to pull his wrist back toward me. "Don't be such a baby, you-" Yet again, my mouth stopped working. His hands were shaking. Once again, the fear and doubt crept into my stomach. He was the self-appointed leader, resilient and composed, and to see him as anything else was…disconcerting. "Hey…are you…"

"Fine." He jerked out of my grasp, jaw tight.

"Um…does it have fever?" I asked after a moment. "You could have an infection."

"No."

"Are you su-"

"_Yes_."

Something told me he was losing patience and I was pushing my luck. So silence prevailed…for a second. Gathering firewood was only entertaining for half a second. "Hey, not being strong enough is bad, but being strong all the time can drive you just as crazy." I chirped conversationally, a swift jab in the gut to his ego I was sure. A momentary look was my only reply. Against better judgment, I decided to leave it at that. Maybe the statement would sink in, fester, and hopefully leave a mark. If he let that get too bad…

He stopped in front of me very suddenly and I barely managed to keep from running into him. "Hey, what's the big-"

"Shut up." He said in a low, harsh tone. I puffed up. Nobody told me to shut up! But the old Yuffie was quelled by the strange feeling that something was wrong. I made a move to look around him, but he held out his arm. "Stay behind me." He ordered. My heart pounded rapidly.

"What is it?" I whispered. He took a step forward, keeping his hand out behind him. I crossed my arms over my chest and looked around the quickly darkening woods. The sun would set before long. "Leon, let's go!" I called. I stepped backwards and movement to the left caught my eye. Nothing. Just a shadow. "Hurry up."

Leon turned with a vaguely confused look. "Did you hear that?"

"Did I see what?"

"I asked if you _heard_…what'd you see?"

"Well what'd you hear?"

"…Somebody screamed."

"…There was a shadow over there. You think this is one of those funny things that happen to strong people?"

"…Let's go."

"Oh thank _Gawd_." And for once, I didn't mind being rushed.

XxXxXxXxX

TBC


	6. What It Takes

1A week passed uneventfully. It was clear to me that the life of an islander could become very monotonous very quickly. We were hungry, definitely, but even that seemed to fade into an endless muddle of unsolvable problems. I would find myself forgetting that I hadn't eaten in about two and a half weeks. It was easier to forget too after I got over the sickness and headaches.

Kairi and I were growing more and more restless, consequently bringing out a more adventurous side in us. Selphie would join us in our explorations of the woods and beach the first few days, but, unlike the rest of us, she had never quite gotten over the hunger and stress. Now that we had a 'stable' home, a decent and still growing pile of firewood, and a completed rock SOS signal in the sand, there seemed to be an endless amount of time to goof off. What else was there to do? Things had even stopped washing up to shore, thankfully. It had been like treasure to find a bucket, or another torn shirt, but the bodies were an entirely different story.

Selphie spent more and more time alone, either sitting under the shade, or sitting at the graveyard, or wading around in the ocean. I worried about her and I could tell that Kairi especially worried about her. Leon, however, had returned to his unfazed, stoic self. That glimpse of a weaker side in the woods a week ago had disappeared and Leon was back with a vengeance. He avoided me and I didn't purposely step in his way and we _certainly _didn't talk about what we'd seen or heard in the forest.

I wasn't sure why it was a taboo subject. Maybe it was because it was one of his weaker moments, or maybe it was because of what I'd seen or what he'd heard...I didn't know. And something in my gut told me I didn't want to know.

XxXxXxX

On day nineteen, Selphie didn't get out of bed. Her usual spunk had disappeared without a trace, seemingly for good. It had been fading fast and now it was gone completely, replaced by a pale face that even a sunburn couldn't disguise. Her eyes were yellowed and glazed. She was going into frequent, harsh coughing fits, ones that left her struggling for breath and she was burning up with fever.

We had saved the bottled water for this sort of emergency, but our food supply was sorely lacking. Each day we gathered fruit, but that and potato chips were hardly substitutes for chicken soup and juice. None of us knew what to do or how to react. Kairi became somewhat of a permanent fixture in front of the tent where Selphie rested, sitting there almost the entire day. I would sit with her occasionally to look in on my friend, but I was too restless and far too fed up with helplessness to stay for very long.

Instead, I kept myself preoccupied by wandering the shoreline in search of shells, or going off to find more fruit. Fruit, of course, that Selphie wouldn't eat. We tried our best to keep her hydrated, or at least less dehydrated than usual, but Selphie would either refuse or just not move at all. Leon steered clear almost completely, but it was evident that even he was worried. He spent the abnormally long day making a spear. I wondered what in the world he was making a spear for but each time I pressed closer to his seemingly impenetrable bubble, he'd just look at me with that blank glare of his and I'd scamper off quietly, chickening out.

Stupid jackass.

And so the day wore on, until finally the sun disappeared and night fell. Kairi and I sat together by the fire while Leon was settled on the opposite side, his face wavering behind the heat rising from the flames. Selphie was asleep and had been for a long time. Usually, the three of us girls chattered for half the night, always able to find something to talk about, most commonly our past.

Leon would interject every so often, be it with a correction or an answer to a question. Otherwise, he remained silent. I sometimes wondered if he listened to us at all or if he only pretended. That night though, it was quiet. Not comfortably quiet either, like it should have been, but replaced by a heavy, worried silence.

"What do you think it is?" I finally asked, unable to handle the deathly quiet any longer. Kairi only shrugged in response, her blue-eyed gaze directed blankly at the flames.

Leon, however, looked at me. "I'm not sure."

"It could just be a twenty-four hour thing, right? A cold o-or maybe she got a hold of some bad fruit. I'm sure it's nothing...ya know..." But my sentence was left open-ended. If very well could have been one of those many 'nothings'. Our own mortality was staring us in the face in the form of a frail teenage girl lying some twenty yards away. It was a horrible feeling.

"We'll do what we can," Leon said finally. "Force her to drink the water we have left and refill from the spring." Kairi looked away at that point. "Tomorrow, I'll see if I can catch some fish."

"How?" I asked. "We've got nothing. No worms, no fishing poles, no fishing line-"

"The old-fashioned way," Kairi replied with a shadow of a smile. "He made the spear didn't he? And, tomorrow, I'll go look for the fruit she likes the most. Those little star ones."

"Then I'll...start work on another spear." I mused. "Maybe there're wild pigs or something we can hunt in the woods!" While the thought of eating actual meat had been a fleeting one, it had still left my mouth watering. Selphie could be heard coughing again and we quieted once more. Not long after, Kairi said her goodnight and left Leon and I to us.

"How's your hand?" I asked. I was not prepared to call it a night just yet.

"Fine." He replied without feeling.

So much for that conversation. I sighed, slowly falling onto my back to stretch my legs out. The sky seemed brighter than usual, specifically to the west. The stars appeared closer together, or maybe there were just more visible that night. Either way, things felt even stranger.

"I don't like this place." I said randomly.

"Why not?"

"It creeps me out."

"Why?"

"Because. It just does. There are things here. You've heard 'em, Selphie and I have seen 'em more than once, and Kairi...well, the whole Sora thing."

"You believe her about Sora?" His tone gave the slightest shift in interest.

I shrugged, still watching the sky. "Why wouldn't I? If she's crazy, why would it matter? We're stranded on a fucking _island _and everyone that knew us probably thinks we're dead by now, and before long we probably will be. I'm sure the rescue parties have stopped searching by now. So who cares if she has an imaginary boyfriend? It's been forever, we're not going to be rescued, and if she wants to believe there's a disappearing guy stuck in a hole, then so be it." I finished my tirade slightly out of breathe and much more agitated then I'd initially intended. Leon didn't answer. I sighed heavily. "Why, do _you _believe her?"

"Yes." I was shocked at the lack of hesitation in his answer.

"Why?"

"Why not?"

"...Okay either you just made a joke or you're taking my philosophy seriously." I couldn't stop the smile from spreading across my face.

He permitted brief, deep chuckle and I felt a strong sense of accomplishment for holding an entire conversation with him. Suddenly, the silence didn't feel so heavy anymore.

XxXxXxXxX

A joyful howl arose from the ocean, startling me at first. I peered out from behind the parachute fabric, searching for the source of the noise. I spotted Yuffie dancing around knee-deep in the blue, waving around Leon's spear and shrieking about something I couldn't make out. I had an idea though when I noticed the fish gutted through on the sharp end of the shaking pole. Her ecstatic expression was priceless, as was her unintelligible shrieking.

"S'goin on..." Selphie mumbled, blinking over at me. As the sickness had worn on and the fever had intensified, she had stopped separating her words.

"I think Yuffie just caught dinner." I replied just as Leon came out of the woods.

Yuffie splashed onto shore with a grin from ear to ear. "I caught a fish! _I caught a fish_! Look what I have! Look at it! It's gorgeous! It's _fantabulous_! It's the best thing you've seen since sliced bread! Start the fire up, let's eat this baby!" She screeched, in the middle of some strange rendition of what looked like a tribal dance.

I began to laugh as Leon walked over to inspect the fish. Yuffie looked like a kid that just found out Santa brought her the entire toy store for Christmas. Even he couldn't help but smirk as he studied the minimal fish. "You might want to catch a few more." I heard him suggest as I moved closer.

Yuffie bounced up and down excitedly. "But it's good right? It's good? We can eat it? Right?" She demanded.

Leon's smirk almost turned into a smile. "Yeah,"

"_Yeah_!" Yuffie exclaimed with vigor renewed at his admission. "Did you hear that Selphie? You're eating gourmet tonight!" She called to the brunette in the tent as she hugged me. Though I could hardly breathe, I returned the gesture, excited for her and for us. It felt like a milestone in our adventure. Then she turned and did the same to Leon before she grabbed the clean spear and rushed back for the water. "Watch out my fishy foes!" She cackled.

Leon shook his head after her, the smallest of smiles on his face and the occasionally wiggling fish in his hands. He turned and spotted me watching him, a smile on my face as well, and his quickly faded. He gave me a look I couldn't read before putting the fish on a rock near our fire spot and moving back up into the woods again. My smile never faded.

XxXxXxX

"How you feelin'?" I whispered into the thick black blanket hovering above our heads. Leon was snoring a few feet away, on the other side of Kairi. Kairi's breathing was steady against my upper arm and she hadn't moved for quite some time; I was assuming she was asleep.

Selphie, however, was resting on my other side, wide awake. "Okay," She whispered, even though it was painfully obvious just by listening to her that she wasn't.

"Are you thirsty?" I asked.

"No," She replied. "Jus' tired." Her voice was thin and her words were loose. She had piled on clothes and was covered with everything we had, and yet she still shivered. "Some adventure."

I smirked. "It's only been two days. You'll feel better tomorrow." I whispered confidently.

It was Selphie's turn to smirk. I could hear her give a small laugh. "Jus...don' eat me," She said slowly, teasingly. "D...don' eat me and don' let em get me."

I swallowed hard, the grin frozen cold on my face. Selphie was whispering out her last will and testament to me. Joking or not, it still hurt "Let who get you?"

"Them."

"Who are them?"

Selphie's breathing rate increased for a moment, as though trying to get words out but none would come. "Them," She breathed at last. "The shadows."

My heart leapt into my throat, scrambled to get a good hold, lost, and fell into the pit of my stomach. "What're you talking about? What shadows?" I had to struggle to keep my voice low. The dark, the air surrounding us, the ocean beating the shore, the trees rustling in the wind...it felt alive. The island seemed to be listening, to know everything we didn't, to hide it.

"The shadows," Selphie repeated, snickering softly. "Sh-shadows...them...Don' let em get me. They...watch us, 'ffie. They wait...in the woods." She began chuckling again. I did my best to shush her as Kairi stirred beside me. Was she delirious? What whatever disease she'd caught worsening that much? "-saw em. You...saw em."

"I did see them. I did." I muttered, patting her arm. The island grew louder. Every twig snap caused my heart to race faster.

"Don' let em get me. Bury me...good. Bury me far so..." She trailed off, looking to the side. I watched her dark outline nervously. "Go sleep." She mumbled finally.

I tried my hardest to obey, but the island kept me awake.

XxXxXxXxX

_Cold._

_**B e a t **_

_Black cold. Freezing cold. _

_**B e a t ** _

_Warm._

_Find warm. No cold. Empty. Nothing. _

_**B e a t **_

_Cold. Water. Black._

_Must find…find heart._

_**B e a t** _

_Weak._

_**B e a t**_

_Cold. _

_**B e a t ** _

_Gone. _

_**B e a t**_

_Safe. Warm. Heart. _

_**B e a t** _

_Take. _

XxXxXxXxX

"You're being an idiot." I hissed at the taller man. He looked down at me impassively, plastic bag hanging from his fingers at his side, filled only with some fruit, chips, and two bottles of spring water. Our fresh water from the plane crash had been given to Selphie. "What if you get hurt?"

"I'll be back in a few days, at most." He repeated firmly. His usually dark eyes were flashing with irritation, a sure sign that I was pressing my limits, but I didn't care.

"What're you gonna find, huh? What if you get lost? What if you die?" I demanded, hands firmly planted on my hips. My voice had a habit of growing shrill, much like Selphie's, when I was stressed out or angry. And I was stressing more and more by the second. "What happens if one of _us_ gets hurt? What if we need you? What'll happen then?"

"I don't owe you anything." He snapped. This took me back. I knew I'd crossed a line. It must have shown on my face because he quickly backtracked. "What do you want, Yuffie? What other choice do we have? If I don't go look for something else, we're all going to end up like Selphie-" He stepped toward me and I stepped back. "The trees won't produce fruit fast enough. We'll wear out our resources soon. At least if something happens to me, that's one less mouth to feed." His hands were shaking again, particularly his bandaged one.

"If you die and then Selphie dies, then it's just me and Kairi. We have to stick together dammit! It's not over yet!"

"Last night you said the rescue workers have given up hope-"

"Leon, I was talking out of my ass! _Gawd_!"

"What do you suggest I do then?"

"Well, sure as hell not a suicide mission! There are…_things_ in those woods! Scary things, Leon!" He just looked at me. I growled in frustration. "What do you think you'll find?"

"I don't know." Just like that his anger was replaced by cold indifference.

I stared at him in open disbelief. "You're really doing this…" I said quietly.

"Somebody has to," He replied harshly. "Look out for Selphie-" He began, turning his back to me.

"What's going on?" Kairi's tired voice interrupted.

Leon stiffened and I was overjoyed to see her. Maybe I wouldn't have to carry the burden of watching him go alone. I glanced back at the tent, figuring Selphie was still asleep. I couldn't se her at this angle anyway. "Leon's leaving." I supplied as callously as I could before Lone could spill his Good Intentions speech.

Kairi looked about as happy about that as I felt. "Do what?"

Leon scowled at me. "I'm following the stream to the other side of the island." He said.

"What? Why? Alone?"

"You three stick together. I should be back in a few days."

"So you take … two bottles of water, some chips and a couple pieces of fruit? You'll be using up too much energy. You'd need more than that!" She exclaimed.

I looked at him pointedly. "Did I not tell you that? I _told_ you that."

If Leon was irritated before, he was a _very_ unhappy camper now. As he opened his mouth at me again, I glanced over my shoulder again, not wanting to hear it. Frankly, Leon was our safety. He was the one that we looked to, he was the leader. I knew that when he left the role would fall to me and I didn't want it. Lives would be on my hands. My thoughts all collided into a mental traffic jam and zeroed in on the arm sticking out of the tent. Selphie's arm. Under any other circumstances, I would have assumed she was fine and it wouldn't have bothered me at all.

However, the blood splattered across the pale, white skin had caught my attention.

XxXxX

_Whoa? Major Uber Cliffy of Doom much? Well, the next chapter should be up fairly quickly so no worries. Anyway, I think this is where it starts picking up. And it's only just begun. Another fair warning to all readers: This will be moderately gory. Nothing too bad but…it has to be kinda graphic in order to fit the story._

_Anyway, thanks to all my reviewers. You guys rock so hard! And special thanks to Plumbob(Noey) and Astaldotholwen(Candace) for being my oh-so-totally-rockin' betas. Love you chicks._

_TBC_


	7. To The Beat Of My Heart

1_Beware slight gore, angst, drama, and severe OOCness. Also, deepest apologies for the huge delay. Life's a bitch._

XxXxXxYuffieXxXxX

"Yuffie?" Kairi's voice sounded far away. "Yuffie what's the matter?" There was a hand on my shoulder but the silence that followed told me she'd seen it too. "Selphie!" Kairi called, sounding shaky and anxious. This jolted us all out of our stunned stupor and sent us into overdrive. It was like the movies. It didn't matter how fast I ran; I couldn't get close enough. For every step forward, the destination took two steps back.

Her body had been twisted so that she was lying on her back, her chest raggedly sliced open. Bright red blood poured out of the open wound, pooling around her torso, soaking through the leaves and clothes, running across the slightly deflated raft like muddy water. Thankfully, her eyes were closed and her face, though not peaceful, was not twisted into one of horror. The gaping, crimson hole was about the size of a large grapefruit, dug deep into her chest.

There was nothing at first. No tears, no screams, no shock, no feelings. Just an unidentifiable sort of numbness that rushed through my body like oil through water. The first coherent thought I could conjure up was something that resembled, _'I let them get her.' _

The plastic bag Leon had been clutching seconds before fell to the ground and he moved into the tent, hunched over, his back brushing the fabric as he reached down to lift her. "Help." He ordered. Kairi and I did the same thing - nothing. "Help me." He repeated through clenched teeth. His hands gripped the sides of her waist, drenched in her blood. Her body gave in to him like a rag doll, lifeless and empty.

I snapped out of it and moved almost mechanically into the tent, ignoring the lukewarm liquid sliding through my fingers, clenching my jaw tightly. I grabbed her underneath her arms and carefully backed out to the sand. Once in the open, Leon took the full load, chest to chest, arms wrapped around her lower back. Her head fell against his shoulder limply. Unfazed by the blood and gore and her very visible insides, he pointed at the tent. "Pull out the raft." He commanded next. "Take it to the water and fill it."

I wasn't sure why he wanted me to do it, but I didn't have the mental capacity to argue with him at that particular moment. Kairi came out of her shocked, almost vegetative state and began pulling out the large, yellow rubber raft as well. Blood trailed onto the sand as we dragged it behind us. Leon followed, Selphie's body held tightly to him.

After we did as asked, Leon lowered her into the contained ocean water, carefully resting her head against the side. His face was stony, blank, almost business like despite the dark scarlet stains covering his front. Immediately the water was tainted, blood sliding through the water in red, diluted swirls, until crimson swallowed the clear completely.

"Selphie-" Kairi began to sob.

"Dump this out." Leon's voice was low. He lifted her as I had earlier, under the arms, while I maneuvered the raft around to rinse it. The process continued a couple more times, until the water was tinted a dusty rose.

"We're going to bury her?" Kairi asked. The hand covering her mouth was trembling. At least she

wasn't crying anymore. Leon only glanced at her, his expressionless mask not wavering for a moment. I didn't answer either.

_Bury me far so...don't let them get me._

XxXxXxYuffieXxXxX

The human sized rectangle of damp sand contrasted sharply with its surroundings. It couldn't have been noon, but already the day felt impossibly hot. The sun beat down relentlessly without even the slightest hint of a breeze. The sky could not have been more blue, the sands could not have been more white, the ocean could not have been clearer...and I couldn't have felt worse. The digging had taken what seemed like eternity. A numb, shell-shocked eternity.

Leon had looked the wound up and down, noting aloud with furrowed brow that her 'insides' were gone. The rational part of my brain wanted to say it was an animal. We left her alone and it sensed she was weak, like a bird with an injured wing, so it attacked. Only...animals didn't attack like _that_. A clean sweep - perfect hole through the chest.

And the last thing she asked of me was exactly what I let happen. I let them get her. I let it happen. "It's this fucking place." I muttered angrily.

Kairi's eyes shifted to me. "What?"

"This _place_. These _things_. They took your boy and they took Selphie." I blinked as tears threatened.

Kairi gazed at me with wide, watery blue eyes. "Yuffie...there's nothing..."

"Maybe she's right." Leon said. He rested on one knee, studying the fresh grave as well.

"Stop it." Kairi snapped harshly. "Stop it right now. There's no reason to-"

"Shut up!" I snapped at her in an identical tone. "People are _dying_."

"We're stranded! People tend to do that when they're left for dead in the middle of nowhere!" Her voice rose with each word.

"You call something like this natural? Her heart was missing. Tropical diseases, animals, islands, _they don't do that!_"

"_Enough!_" Leon barked. I'd never seen him look so fierce. Kairi and I quieted. "If you want to turn a blind eye to this then go ahead." Then he glared at me. "Panicking isn't going help the situation, Yuffie. If you would stop yelling-"

"Oh fuck you." I yelled. Before I knew what was happening, I was on my feet, hands clenched at my sides. "I've seen those things and so have you!" I pointed at Kairi and she immediately began sobbing again.

"Well then what are we supposed to do?"

In all my fury and confusion, I couldn't find a single way to answer her. All I felt was _hatred_. I hated Kairi for crying. I hated Selphie for being dead, I hated Leon for being so infuriatingly calm, and I hated this _place_.

Leon lifted his head. "We stay together. Neither of you are to leave my sight." He glowered at the both of us.

I stared back insolently. "And what can you do? Weren't you gung-ho about going off to the other side of the island an hour ago?" I hissed. "We don't need anyone. Nobody needs a big strong man to protect the damsels in fucking distress-"

"Yuffie-" Kairi cut in weakly, completely nullifying my point.

"Stop crying," I ordered, sounding cruel even to myself. "It's not helping and Selphie wouldn't want it." Kairi gave a soft whimper and buried her face in her knees. I assumed that was her surrender and proceeded to capture her flag.

Leon, however, was standing strong opposite me. "I'm not trying to be the hero, Yuffie." He said my name as though it were poison. "But odds are they won't attack us if we're-"

"Oh what do you know?"

"Safety in numbers. Don't leave my sight - end of discussion."

"Oh, end of discuss- I can take care of myself." I spat. If it were possible to feel my blood boiling, I was feeling it in a major way. "I am not some kid. I am just as much an adult as-"

"_Yuffie_." This time Kairi's voice was stronger, angrier. I shook my head. I didn't want this. This was what the island wanted. It knew. A breeze blew across the top of the trees like laughter. The island _laughed _at us. I hated it. I'd finally lost my temper, an outburst long overdue, and it knew.

"Just forget it," I let my shoulders drop and walked away from the grave.

XxXxYuffieXxXxXxX

There is nothing like the feeling of losing one of your own. Especially when the one of your own was such an important member. The four of us had bonded over the month. Selphie was my friend from the very beginning. She was The Shriek, the hyper, the happy, my twin, the boy crazy one with wide eyes and a bright smile. And she was the first to fall. _Dumb bitch_.

Sand crunched under heavy footfalls behind me, a dead giveaway to Leon's presence. I scowled, making sure to shoot a particularly withering glare over my shoulder. His unshaven face was as grim as before. "Where's Kairi?" I grumbled. "Already breaking your 'joined at the hip' rule? Shame." I sniffed spitefully and returned my attention to the midday sky.

"The rule goes into effect after this." He replied evenly. I could practically _feel _the smirk that never was. _Dumb jerk_.

"After what? You stand there like a brick wall while I yell at you some more? Noooo thanks." I tightened my arms around my knees, narrowing my eyes at the horizon. It was blurry from a combination of heat and tears. _Dumb tears_.

"You're crying," He observed in that oh-so-observant, superior way. He probably didn't mean it like that, but the words behind the words rang loud and clear in my ears. _Dumb baby_.

"No shit Sherlock." I replied, chuckling despite myself. "Crying doesn't solve anything," Kairi's tear-streaked face flashed into my mind. "But it sure as hell makes me feel better." Slowly he sank down beside me, much to my dismay, and sat with his knee up, arm slung over it.

He didn't speak so I did. "I miss my mom." Points for random. "And I miss my family and my life and my bed and most of all," I sniffled, wiping my eyes with the back of my hand. "I miss Taco Bell." He barely cracked a smile and I sighed. "You know what the last thing she asked me was? Before telling me to go to sleep?" I looked at him seriously. He waited. "She said _don't let them get me. _She knew about the shadows and she warned me. She knew they would take her."

"Yuffie-"

"They're everywhere! Can't you feel it - this stupid place has...eyes everywhere. They're in the woods and now, for some reason, they're pissed and we're screwed." I choked out a laugh, only then realizing how much like a nut job I sounded. "Maybe I caught Selphie's delirium or something but...Leon...what animal could do _that_?"

"It's possible that it's people." He said. This surprised me. People? I had been so sure that we were the only people here, that we were stranded alone. The suggestion of civilization was...revolutionary. "A tribe, maybe."

"But...what are those shadows then?"

His jaw tightened. "Yuffie I...really don't know."

After that, I didn't know what to say or do. So I sat without speaking and watched the motion of the waves as they slid across the sand. Leon didn't do much either except glare off at the distance as though it owed him. He wasn't such a bad guy. He was a little strange and a whole lot quiet, but he seemed to mean well. I felt a wave of guilt wash over me as I thought of yelling at him. That guilt multiplied at the memory of Selphie. The fact that she was gone wouldn't truly sink in for a long time.

"But maybe..." I said. "If I'd believed Selphie at first, she'd still be alive."

"Maybe." Leon agreed distantly.

"So maybe if you believe me now, _we'll _stay alive."

This time I got his attention. He watched me wordlessly with that intense, searching look that I could never figure out. "Just don't leave my sight." He finally grumbled and turned away.

"...Okay."

XxXxXxXxX

"Listen to this bull. '_Our loss is unfortunate but hardly devastating_.' Hardly devastating? The entire plan was nearly crushed in that one second! How could they be so stupid? If I ever found the guy that let that thing out..."

"I dunno...mistakes happen."

"Mistakes don't happen _here_, they don't. We can't afford mistakes."

"Dude, you sound like your dad more and more every day. I thought you were just in this for a summer thing. Sounds like you're really gettin' into it."

"Yeah well...I think this could make a difference in the world. This is big, man. This is real big."

"Big huh? ...But doesn't it bother you at all? Even a little? I mean...people are dying."

"...Sometimes...you just have to look toward the greater good. Right?"

"I don't know dude..."

"Just look at it this way. They're only sleeping. It doesn't seem so bad if you think they're only sleeping."

"Yeah...well...anyway. Guard duty tonight?"

"Ugh, for the rest of the week. Old man says security and surveillance has been upped thanks to that idiot's mistake."

"I'll go with you...nothin' better to do..."

XxXxKairiXxXxXxX

No matter how many times Leon soaked his shirt, the pink stain just would not wash out. It was like this permanent reminder of who we had lost. He finally gave up and chose instead one of the blue and white t-shirts out of the suitcase we'd found in the beginning. It was a little small, but it worked. Yuffie remained distant for a few days despite Leon's law that we never split up. Slowly but surely she was coming around again. We chose not to talk about it anymore, only discussing the shadows and Selphie's old self separately, never the incident itself. It was far too painful.

Though Yuffie blamed herself, guilt still ate at me day and night. If I hadn't left her that morning. If I had seen whatever attacked her before...why hadn't she screamed? My dreams had been focusing lately on the possibilities. It was only a few minutes time that she was attacked. That would have meant these 'shadows' Yuffie was convinced of would have been coming for me as well.

More than once the thought, what if it had been me? had been running through my mind over and over. So I kept myself busy. The part of the day that wasn't spent doing routine 'chores' was spent scouring the shoreline for shells. Absently, I reached up to finger my necklace, just to make sure it was still there.

"Kairi," Leon walked up behind me. "We're going to the spring." He turned as I did. I watched his back as he trudged up the beach to where Yuffie waited with her hands on her waist by the jungle. The familiar tingling dread of this particular chore make it's way into my heart and quickened the pace. I struggled to breathe it into submission. I hated that jungle more than anything. It had taken two captive, first Sora then Selphie, and there was no telling who would be next.

I forced suspicion and fear away as the three of us wandered the path to the waterfall. We no longer gathered water from the little pool at the bottom. Instead, we bathed there. The water that came directly from the falls itself was used for drinking and cooking.

It was the little things that seemed embarrassing. We were open with each other because we had no other choice, but it was still strange to have not shaved in over a month. It was still strange to bath in my bra and underwear. We would never look at each other when we washed. It was an unspoken rule, a quiet courtesy. This time was no different. The water was cold as ice; it always was in the mornings. Goose bumps rose along my tanned skin and I shivered.

"I'm going up there for a minute." Leon spoke, rising to pull his shirt back on.

"Where?" I asked at the same time Yuffie said, "Don't go far."

"Just right there." He replied and found a way that wound up the hill.

Yuffie and I glanced at each other and shared a smile. The moment Leon was out of hearing range, Yuffie leaned closer to me and grinned. "_Nice _ass." She whispered, nodding just so to the man now standing at the top of the waterfall. I giggled into my forearm, running my hands through the cool water below. Leon was very attractive, despite the scraggly appearance. It seemed sick to me to find time to notice the handsomeness of a fellow strandee in circumstances like these but... "Betcha it won't be long before he decides we gotta uproot camp." She muttered.

"Would that be so bad?" I studied an ant crawling along the embankment of the spring. "I guess...what else are we gonna do, right? We can't really believe we're gonna spend the rest of our lives here. Who knows how long might that be? We gotta...figure something out."

"Now you sound like him." She huffed.

"Why are you so against it?" I asked in exasperation.

"I don't know!" She snapped in the same tone. "Maybe I just don't want something else to happen, okay? Who knows how long it would take to get to the other side a-and once we did, what then? _Oh look, it's the exact same place we came from_." She pulled her shirt on and exhaled noisily.

"At least we won't be so unsure." I voiced my thought after a moment. "At least we'll know-"

"Know? That it's hopeless? That this is four miles of nothing and we're completely and utterly alone? That's not exactly a morale booster-"

"But-" I cut in, standing as well. "Maybe there _is _something."

"Like what?"

"I don't know. People."

Yuffie looked at me for a few more minutes, eyes darker than usual. Then a small smile crept onto her chapped lips. "That." Her voice was resolute. "That is the exact reason I don't want to know. If there's nothing there, then hope is gone."

"What happened to you!" I demanded. I stamped my foot angrily, too upset to care that I was whining like a kindergartner. "You used to be optimistic! You used to think things would be okay!"

"Yeah? Well...then Selphie died and it clicked. Something on this island killed her and it's gonna kill you and it's gonna kill me and it's gonna kill him. It's not gonna stop. Why else would this be a deserted island? Don't you think _somebody _would have inhabited this place? Don't you think it would belong to a country somewhere?" She hesitated, her breathing uneven. "Maybe you should stop denying the truth and look around! Do it! Look around! Look where we are!"

"Yuffie...you're just tired. We all miss Selphie, okay? But it's not going to help if you lose your head-"

"Would you just stop with the patient, motherly bullshit? That soothing psychological babble doesn't work on me. I'm the only one that's accepted the truth around here."

"So that's it then? You're giving up?" I stared at her with my arms crossed. She did the same. Neither of us spoke again, much less moved, for a small eternity.

"Hey!" A sharp cry from above pulled us both away from the fight.

"Where's Leon?" I asked suddenly. He was no longer visible. Yuffie and I shared a look before simultaneously racing up the steep hill, still soft from the morning dew. I spotted Leon's form hunched over something a few feet away and stumbled over a tree root in my haste to get to him. Yuffie was right on my heels. He turned, his expression as black as the day we found Selphie.

"What is it?" Yuffie panted, hands on her knees. Leon leaned back and both of us gasped.

XxXxXxXxX

_Holy mother of cheesy cliffhangers! XD Gotta love me. The next update may take a while, as I'm pretty stuck..._


	8. Kill The Messenger

Holy lack of updates Batman! Thanks to Candace for her Beta-Skillz of DOOM.

XxXxX

The question was not what it was so much as _who _it was. I know I certainly wasn't prepared to see a man sitting against a tree, looking every bit the victim...but quite alive. "Whoa!" I exclaimed before I thought it through. "Who is that?"

At the same time, Kairi gasped - "Another one!" I supposed we could have been a little more direct, speaking to the very much aware man in question, but I wasn't thinking about it. Apparently he _was _thinking about it.

"I-" He paused, appearing surprised at himself. We waited but he said nothing more, lowering his head so that long, silvery gray hair fell across his face and hid it from inspection.

"You got a name?" I pressed as patiently as I could, taking a couple hesitant steps forward. Kairi caught my bravery and kept up. Her shoulder bumped mine. He appeared very well kept for a man that... "Were you on the plane too?"

Leon moved back to meet up with us. The stranger brought a tired gaze to meet ours and I felt a surge of sympathy. What it must have felt like, being stared at and questioned by a (quite intimidating if I could say so myself) line of ragged-looking islanders.

"I uh..." He trailed off, blinking bright blue-green eyes a few times. Blue-green eyes? I quickly straightened. When had I gotten that close to him anyway? "The plane crashed." He said finally. "I couldn't remember...the..." His eyes widened as he looked at us again, this time with painfully visible hope. "Rescue?" He asked.

I hated to be the bearer of bad news. Luckily, Leon didn't. "We're stranded. So you were on the plane then?" His dark eyes narrowed.

The sitting boy nodded slowly. "It crashed." He repeated, as though he couldn't quite wrap his head around it. "How long?"

"How long?" Kairi was wringing her hands together.

"Has it been?" He clarified, a little impatient.

The three of us shared a look. "Over a month," Kairi answered grimly. She was our timekeeper anyway. His eyes fluttered closed and his pale skin seemed to grow even paler.

"Where have you been?" I asked.

"Here," He said.

"Here?" Prod prod.

"Here." He echoed. Well. Less of a talker than me but more of a talker than Leon. A balance. Great. "Back." He pointed to the left, away from our camp. "Back that way."

"Are you alone?" Kairi moved forward with ease, without fear, with trust. She leaned down on her knees and began the obvious task of checking him over. He seemed to accept the mother-henning without question or complaint. Again, he seemed a thousand miles away. "Hey," She poked his arm and he looked at her. "You awake?"

There was a long moment, not awkward but not exactly comfortable, but then the smallest of smiles touched his lips. "Yeah."

XxX

The only real information we could get out of him was his name. Riku. The rest of our questions went ignored or avoided. Even as we walked back to camp, he was walking steadily as any of us (aside from the occasional stumble that he thought no one noticed) and kept his gaze low and his mouth shut tight. I figured he was in some kind of shock - if I'd been stranded alone for a month to be found by a tribe of possible (for all he knew) head hunters, I'd be a little off too. Still, as I fell into step behind him, I watched.

He was pale, lacking the dark, burnt to a crisp fashion the rest of us were colored with. Not only that, but he didn't appear starved either. He was lean but didn't seem to have missed out on a value meal or two along the way. Maybe he was just naturally filled out. Maybe my own craziness was making me more paranoid than I already was.

He sensed my stare and turned his head to stare back over his shoulder. I didn't bother to try to cover up my obviousness. Hell, why would I? This wasn't society. What was so impolite about staring anyway? As a naturally curious being, I had a right to study a newcomer as a scientist might study a new bacterium. Not that I was comparing this guy with bacteria...well anyway, he didn't seem that affected by my watchful gaze. He simply returned his to the earth.

"So what were you doin' out here?" I asked. "Far from home?"

He blinked, lips twitching just barely. For a long second, the only sound was the crunching of foliage beneath our feet. "Looking." He said finally. "I kept hearing things from..." He cast a furtive glance at Kairi and Leon. "You guys."

"So you just uprooted one day and went for a walk? What if you'd gotten lost in the jungle?"

"Well...what else was I gonna do?"

Well. That shut me up. What was with this style of thinking, hmm? Maybe _I_ was the only sane one. Leon coughed behind his hand and gazed off to the side. "Oh shut up," I grabbed a fistful of leaves from a passing shrub and hurled them toward him. They fell a pathetic distance short, fluttering in a very non-threatening way to the ground. Kairi attempted to hide a smile.

Leon, however, waited for the leaves to float back to the dirt before he looked at me. "What?"

I stuck my tongue out at him because I had nothing to say. The bickering ended there. We were out of the woods, literally, and back home. It felt like home now, over a month later, and I didn't even use mental quotation marks when referring to it as such anymore. As I watched Riku's reaction, I felt the strangest combination of pride and embarrassment. I wasn't sure what his 'home' had looked like but I knew how ours did. The little tent flapped in the breeze, giving little glimpses of the grass beds we had created. The plastic raft had been discarded, a bundled up mess of yellow beside the tent. None of us wanted to touch it after...

Aside from that, we had the suitcases and small, washed up miscellaneous treasures lined up. The circle of rocks, the wood ashy within them, was where we held our nightly gathering. Riku was taking all of this in surreptitiously, just as stealthily as I was watching him. The smallest, briefest touch of a smile crossed his features again. It was gone before I could get a good glimpse and I was confused as to whether I saw it at all.

"Are you thirsty? Hungry?" Kairi spoke up, daring to break the silence. "We don't have much but it's something."

Riku turned to her. "I may take you up on that - later." He said; voice toneless.

She nodded and an awkward silence drifted by. I cleared my throat. It felt like having a guest, someone to entertain with no means of entertainment. "Well, I'm gonna..." I gave a short wave, effectively excusing myself from the pit of uncomfortable hell. Leon wasted no time on a retreat as well. There was only a split second of guilt at leaving Kairi to fend for herself against this stranger but the All For One rule was still very much in effect.

Leon settled himself at the ocean's edge, having gathered his unfinished spear and knife. I joined him, facing the opposite way, pretending to be there for a real reason. Really, I was just watching. Leon knew and didn't bother to speak. Kairi was perched on a brown suitcase, eyes trained on Riku as he studied the tent with an almost childlike curiosity.

"I've decided that this whole thing is entirely fucked up."

Leon didn't even bat an eye. "I suppose you've just realized that?"

"What? Is...is that sarcasm I hear? The great and stoic Leon Leonhart was being sarcastic? Why, that's almost as astonishing as hearing you laugh!" Torturing the hell out of him was one of my favorite past times. After all, I had so much time, what else was I gonna entertain myself with? Unfortunately, he was in one of his 'untouchable' moods. He remained straight-faced and I heaved a sigh.

"You...think...maybe this is all too..." I stumbled over my thoughts. "Too uh..."

"Planned?" He supplied.

I nodded quickly. "Yes, planned. A conspiracy even."

He raised an eyebrow at this, "Conspiracy?" He repeated.

"Oh don't look at me like you haven't been thinkin' the same thing! Selphie...dies and then shows up this mystery dude? He doesn't look real weathered by his stay in the jungle. I mean really, compare us to him."

Leon shifted uncomfortably, dark gaze directed at the ocean. I stared at him for a long time, waiting for him to admit that I was right. He seemed tired. The cut on his hand was always hidden by the dirty, makeshift bandage. At night, right before the sun disappeared completely, he would rinse off the rag and his hand in the ocean but I had never questioned him about it. I didn't question him much at all in fact.

Well. That needed to change. "Give me your hand." I ordered suddenly.

Leon obviously hadn't been following my train of through and appeared surprised. "My hand is fine-" He argued in a dull tone.

I frowned when he started to stand. "Would you stop being a baby for five seconds and let me see the damn hand?" I snapped impatiently. My own hand shot out and snatched his wrist toward me. He plunked himself right back on the sand, not having another option. Quickly I released the fist back into his custody, vaguely pleased with myself. "Are you gonna unwrap it or do I have to do the honors?"

The expression on his face reminded me of a scolded child, alternating between hints of sheepishness and obligation. Slowly he unwound the bandage, revealing the tender flesh. My eyes widened. "Whoa!" I exclaimed before I could stop myself. A withering glance was my reply. "Leon, you idiot! It's infected!" It was true. The skin around the dark, red slice was splattered with deep purples, greens, and yellows, like a bruise.

My fingers, shaking with hesitation, brushed against the multicolored skin. I wasn't all that surprised to find it warm. "Fever," I added to myself with a frown.

"It's fine." He spoke quickly, again appearing like a little kid. I pictured a six-year-old Leon trying to convince me that the scrape on his knee didn't need the stingy stuff.

"That's not good," I had a knack for pointing out the obvious.

The withering look returned. "I'll live."

"And if you don't?" The sudden impatient ice in my tone was unexpected. "You better help us dig your grave. Somehow I don't think Kairi and I will be able to carry you there and dig it." He simply stared at me. "Sorry." I added after a long silent stretch. "But what happens if-"

"When you ask me questions like that, do you really expect me to know the answer?"

"..No."

"Okay then."

XxXxX


End file.
